Several North Island quakes

Earthquakes have struck Wellington and Central Hawke's Bay today, but caused no damage.

A magnitude 4 quake - centred 20km west of Wellington and 20km underground - was recorded at 3.48pm, and was followed by a 3.8 quake half an hour later.

They followed a 5.2 earthquake near Waipukurau in Central Hawke's Bay at 10.48am.

GNS Science said the Waipukurau quake followed a 3.6 magnitude jolt in the same area about 45 minutes earlier.

Waipukurau resident Juliet Smith said she and her husband heard the quake coming.

"It's very hard to describe the noise… but it was like a dull knocking sound," Mrs Smith said.  "Then there was quite a jolt and then it turned to rocking. That lasted about 20 seconds."

Mrs Smith said there was no damage to her house.

The quake was felt widely across Hawke's Bay and as far away as in Wellington.

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence emergency management group coordinator Nigel Simpson said the quake was felt most sharply in the small town of Porangahau.

"Residents sheltered in doorways as objects fell off shelves," he said.

He said so far there had been no reports of damage.

However, he urged residents to always be prepared and to ensure they had water, a radio and a torch.

The service received 40 reports from people who'd felt the tremor near Waipawa, ranging from Napier to Palmerston North.

Geonet said today's Hawke's Bay quake is not related to Canterbury's 7.1 Saturday earthquake - other than that they're both caused by the same two plates rubbing against each other.

Data centre manager Kevin Fenaughty said central Hawke's Bay gets an earthquake that size about once a year.

"It would be a drawing a long bow to say that they are connected," Mr Fenaughty said.

"The two can't really be compared. The Canterbury quake released 900 times more energy than the one in Hawke's Bay."

Mr Fenaughty said scientists knew a lot about the type of earthquakes that occurred in Hawke's Bay, whereas the Canterbury quake was very new.

- With NZPA

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